Something Wicca
by intangible-rice
Summary: Back when there was talk of a Charmed reboot with all four sisters, I sort of scratched my head as to what that would mean for the Power of Three. I started thinking of ways in which Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige could all be together without altering it into a 'Power of Four' scenario, and my mind ended up creating new versions of the characters and the pilot episode. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is sort of my idea as to what a modern-day Charmed would be like, and how the sisters would interact with each other if all four of them were there from the beginning. It's based on Something Wicca This Way Goes, obviously, but I've changed a lot of the settings/circumstances too. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter One

The midday sunshine poured through the chapel's stained glass windows, making everything shine with a radiance that betrayed the somberness of the occasion. Piper found herself staring at the flower arrangements, remembering that just outside this room was a world of happiness and carefree attitudes that she herself could finally reenter, once this day was over.

 _Orchids_ , she thought to herself, _Where are the orchids?_ They were Grams's favorite flower - she knew this, everyone should have known this - so why weren't there any in the bouquets? She sighed, knowing she should have just taken care of the florist herself. But she had been too busy with everything else to even think about it. _It doesn't matter now_ , she reasoned. _And it's not like she can scold me about this anyway_. Her train of thought was interrupted by a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, Piper, you alright?" her baby sister asked her. "You kinda spaced out there."

"Yeah," Piper answered with as appropriate a smile as could be mustered, considering the setting. "I'm fine."

"I just wanna say, the eulogy you gave was beautiful. Grams would have loved it."

"Thanks, Paige," Piper said appreciatively. "I just wish everyone could have been here."

Paige sighed. "I know. But Phoebe dropped her cell service months ago. Even I don't know how to get in touch with her."

"Plus it's not like she'd really have the cash to just hop on a plane back here," said their eldest sister, between shaking the hands of mourners. "Unless her little scheme paid off somehow."

Paige eyed her. "I think her reasons for going to New York had less to do with your dad and more to do with you and Grams, Prue," she reminded.

"I don't care," Prue shrugged. "We're the ones that raised her. If that wasn't good enough for her, then good riddance."

Piper bit her lip. It was unwise, and heartless at this particular moment, to take a side on this issue. She'd been as mad as Prue over Phoebe's actions once, but after the ritual of dragging her sister home half-conscious from parties and talking mall security guards into reconsidering pressing charges had stopped being a part of her life, she'd found herself sympathizing with Phoebe's issues. She felt bad now for not being as supportive as Paige had been. Maybe if more than one of them had tried to keep up contact with Phoebe in New York, they wouldn't have lost track of her like this.

"Am I too late?" a voice said from the foot of the altar. Piper was almost knocked off her feet by the surprise of her little sister standing there. It was almost as if their words had somehow conjured her up out of the air.

"Phoebe!" Paige said enthusiastically, ignoring all attempts to look solemn as she rushed up to her.

"Hey, Paige," Phoebe smiled back as they embraced.

"Phoebe, how did you get here?" Piper asked in disbelief.

Her wayward sister stood up straighter, looking into the faces of her siblings with guilty eyes. "Well... I've been back," she admitted.

"What?" Paige asked.

"I left New York about two months ago," Phoebe explained.

"And you didn't tell me you were back in town?" Paige said in mock anger. The face of her oldest sister, however, was much more irate.

"Or me," Prue interrupted as Phoebe was about to answer. "Or Piper, or any of us. Grams was dying, and you were just hanging out around the corner?" she asked spitefully.

Phoebe crossed her arms defiantly. "Well I didn't _know_ about that, Prue," she reminded. "And I'm sorry I wasn't there to say goodbye, or to help you guys. Truth is I was waiting to contact you, but then I saw the obituary in the paper..."

"Waiting for what?" Prue asked. Piper put a hand on her sister's arm, a silent plea for her to not start yet another argument.

Phoebe sighed. "Until I had something to show for myself," she admitted. "Running away to New York was..."

"Stupid?" Prue interrupted. Piper clamped down even harder.

"Yes," Phoebe admitted freely. "And I realized that. A lot of the things I've done were stupid. But I got help for them."

"Phoebe, that's great," Piper interjected, glad to be able to say something positive to her sister.

"Thanks, Piper," Phoebe answered. "I have a job in the Haight, and an apartment. I was just gonna wait until things with me were a little more stable to stop by."

"Phoebe, you can't just 'stop by...'" Prue started. This time, Piper verbally admonished her.

"I know, Prue," Phoebe answered. "I know I've done a lot of bad things, and I'm not expecting you to just magically forgive me. But for now, I'd just like a moment with my grandmother, please."

Prue stared at her for a long time before walking off to the side of the church. Piper followed.

"Prue, how could you?" she whispered, hoping to avoid causing a bigger scene than they already had.

"How could _she?_ " Prue retorted. "Or have you forgotten?"

"No I haven't, Prue, but look at her. She's really trying to turn herself around. If you go and put her down the same way you always do, she's just gonna rebel again. I'm not saying you have to forgive her for everything, but just try to be a little supportive."

"I think you and Paige have that covered," Prue responded, rummaging through her purse to check her phone.

Phoebe finished her prayer and stood up again in front of the casket. She placed a hand on her grandmother's cheek for a long moment, wishing the woman could know everything she was feeling. With a sigh, she wiped a tear and turned away.

Paige scooted over in the front pew as Phoebe came to sit next to her. "Hey," she said sympathetically.

Phoebe smiled appreciatively. "Was it bad?" she asked. "Did she suffer?"

Paige shook her head. "You know she'd been deteriorating for a few years, mentally. But she wasn't in pain. She just lost the ability to do things all of a sudden, started making less sense... She kept saying something about destiny, it was really weird," Paige informed. "And then she stopped saying anything. She just... slipped away."

"I'm sorry I wasn't here to help."

"I wasn't really, either," Paige admitted. "Piper called me and Prue, in that last week, and of course we came over. But until then I just kind of thought it was business as usual. I went on with school, and Prue was busy planning her life with Roger." Paige paused to dab away some tears of her own. "You're not the only guilty one, Phoebe. We shouldn't have put it all on Piper's shoulders like that."

Phoebe looked over at her two older sisters. "They really hate me, huh?"

"I don't think Piper does," Paige answered. "She was just angry at first. Prue though... she won't let a grudge go."

"Tell me about it," Phoebe said, letting herself chuckle a little. "She's probably still mad that I stole her college boyfriend."

"That guy was six years older than you, Phoebe!" Paige reminded.

"And that's my fault? He was the one looking at high schoolers."

"Well still, it probably wasn't wise to have your prom portraits taken with him."

Phoebe rolled her eyes at herself. "I know. But that was me, always trying to stir things up. I was such an idiot."

"Hey, you figured it out," Paige reminded her.

Phoebe sighed, looking back at the open casket. "Not soon enough."

Prue and Piper approached them. "It's time for the burial," Prue announced. "The pallbearers..."

"Oh, wait a second," Paige interrupted. She began to dig in her purse.

"What are you looking for?" Prue asked.

"Well, I was trying to think of something unique to do for Grams, so I looked online and I found..." Paige produced some folded-up paper from her bag. "...this."

"What is it?" Piper asked.

"It's a Wiccan ritual."

"A what?" Prue exclaimed. "Are you still on that kick?"

"I am open to all beliefs and customs, as was Grams," Paige defended as she unfolded the paper. "This is a nice ritual, 'To Eulogize a Matriarch's Spirit.' Since we're all here, we can all say it."

"You want us to perform some kind of witchcraft at our grandmother's funeral?" Prue protested.

"Oh please, it's not like we need a blood sacrifice or anything," Paige argued. "Come on, Prue, all you have to do is read it, it'll take 10 seconds."

Phoebe shrugged. "I'm game."

"It might be kind of nice..." Piper agreed.

Prue sighed. "Fine. What am I supposed to do?"

"We all stand next to the casket and recite the words," Paige informed, handing her a copy of the ritual. "That's it."

The four sisters walked up to the altar. They paused for a moment, taking one last look at the woman who had been grandmother, teacher, mother, and protector to them for so many years.

"Are you ready?" Paige asked. The others nodded.

 _A matriarch now slumbers deep  
But in our hearts, her life we keep  
We call the power to move her on  
And her legacy we take upon_

They folded up the papers and handed them back to Paige.

"That wasn't so bad," Piper commented.

Just then, the earth began to shake.

A/N: I changed the spell from what was in the pilot, because the original one would have seemed really out-of-place and suspicious at a funeral, so this is what I came up with instead. A little shoddy (I've never been good with spells), but hopefully it serves its purpose. And I know that Paige was the one with alcohol problems in the series, but if both she and Phoebe were the "troublemakers", I don't think there would be enough differences between their characters here. So instead I made Phoebe a little more troubled, and Paige more of an understanding, free-spirited character. Will update soon (this story is surprisingly easy to write)!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Wow, I'm amazed at all of the reviews and favorites this is getting! I know the fan reaction to the idea of a Charmed reboot was pretty negative, so I wasn't expecting a fic with a similar premise to be well received. Thanks so much!

Chapter Two

"Is everyone okay?" Prue asked when the tremors stopped.

"Yeah, we're fine," Paige answered.

"Ugh, I did _not_ miss earthquakes in New York," Phoebe commented.

"Oh no..." Piper said, noticing that one of the flower vases had tipped over.

"Piper, you can fix it later," Prue reminded her as the pallbearers stepped up and began closing the casket.

Piper nodded and rejoined her sisters, preparing to lead their grandmother to her final resting place. She placed a hand on the now-closed casket as she passed by. "Sorry I didn't get you any orchids, Grams."

* * *

"I hate to leave again so quickly, but I have to get back to work," Phoebe said as they walked away from the grave. "My manager only gave me half the day off."

"Really, for a funeral?" Paige asked.

"I know. But in his defense, I haven't been working there very long. He probably doesn't want me to get in the habit of coming and going as I please."

"Speaking of, apparently that client I've been trying to pin down for weeks has picked today of all days to show up in my office, so I gotta run, too," Prue said, putting her phone up to her ear.

"It was nice to see you," Phoebe attempted.

Prue however had already switched into work mode. "Yeah, Roger, I'll be there in 15 minutes..." she said as she walked away.

"Wait, Roger didn't come?" Phoebe realized.

Paige shrugged. "Well, you know he's never been a family man."

"And Prue wants to start one with him?" Phoebe asked incredulously.

"I don't really think Prue wants kids, Pheebs," Piper said. "And maybe he'll come around. Once he gets past some of the experiences he's had with _this_ family..."

"Oh come on, not this again!" Phoebe protested. "All I did was say a few suggestive things, you know I didn't touch him. He's so... blech," she said, sticking her tongue out. "I only did it because I'd let my demons take over."

Piper smiled. "I know, Phoebe, and I'm so happy to hear that you're dealing with them." She pulled her sister into a hug. " _I'm_ glad I got to see you, and even though I don't know what your phone number is now, the one for Grams's house hasn't changed, so you can call anytime, okay?"

"Okay, Piper," Phoebe answered. "Thanks." She turned to hug Paige too. "I gotta go. I'll see you guys later."

"Bye, sis," Paige waved as she walked away.

"Anytime for the next few weeks anyway," Piper added as an afterthought. Paige looked at her strangely. "I know Grams left the house to all of us, but there's no way we're gonna keep it."

Paige frowned. "Aw, boo. I love the house."

"I do too," Piper agreed. "But it's not like Grams could really keep up with it, and I was too busy keeping up with her to do anything either. It's falling apart." Paige nodded. "Plus, the only one of us who could even maybe afford to fix it up is Prue, and she's got her fancy penthouse with Roger, and her fancy wedding coming up..."

"Am I sensing some resentment here?" Paige asked.

Piper sighed. "It's just... I know she deserves freedom more than any of us, I know she gave up her childhood when Mom died... but sometimes I think Phoebe isn't the only one turning her back on this family," she admitted. "I barely know who she is anymore. And she didn't ask either of us to be her bridesmaids."

"Gee, I go off to college and this family falls apart," Paige joked.

Piper laughed. "Well, it was bound to happen at some point," she realized. "Our father abandoning us and our mom and stepdad dying doesn't really scream 'family togetherness.'"

They'd reached the parking lot, and slowly meandered towards Piper's car. "So, are you a slave to the grindstone too?" Paige asked.

"Not that grindstone," Piper answered. "I took a leave of absence from work when Grams got close to the end."

"That's nice."

"It would be, if I could enjoy it."

"Well, why can't you?"

"I have to clean out the house. We can't sell it if it's full of Grams's stuff."

"You're starting that _today?_ Why don't you wait for..."

"For Prue to interrupt her life again and for Phoebe to materialize out of nowhere?" Piper asked. "I think we both know who's the most reliable in that equation."

Paige sighed. "But that's not fair to you, you've already run yourself ragged taking care of Grams..."

"It's not fair, but it's how it is."

Paige crossed her arms. "No," she said. "Y'know what? I changed my mind, don't drive me to the train station. Drive me home. I'm helping you."

"Paige, you have finals to worry about..."

Paige waived her hand, dismissing her sister's concerns. "College is the land of extended deadlines, Piper," she said. "And what better reason for an extension than bereavement?"

Piper smiled. "Thanks, Paige."

* * *

"Where have you been?" Roger admonished Prue as she rushed out of the elevator.

"Uh, hello, Grams's funeral," Prue answered as they sped down the hallway.

"That should have been done an hour ago!" Roger continued. "I've been stalling Lily Graham from leaving your office for the better part of what was supposed to be my lunch hour, and believe me, she is not a patient woman."

"I know, Roger, I'm sorry. Things just got kind of held up, with that earthquake..."

"Earthquake?"

"Yeah, you didn't feel it?"

"Not a thing."

"Weird, it was a pretty big one," Prue commented. "Anyway, there was that, and then the little unexpected issue of Phoebe showing up..."

"Phoebe?"

"Yeah, she's back," Prue said as they approached her office door. "I got it from here, Roger. We'll talk later, okay?"

Roger stood with a grin on his face long after Prue had gone.

A/N: I've always been very puzzled by Prue's relationship with Roger, so I decided to change things up a bit and have them still be together here. (Though it might not exactly be a happy relationship...) And gabyhyatt this should answer your question about Paige... yes, she still is Sam's daughter. My idea here is that the girls thought of him as their stepfather, without realizing that he was their whitelighter, too, and then they believed that both he and Patty died in an accident. More to come soon!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I should add some clarification to my note at the end of the last chapter... Paige is aware that she is Sam's daughter, that part isn't a secret from them. The only secret is that he was a whitelighter.

Chapter Three

"Woah," Paige said, looking up at the peeling paint and overgrown lawn as they pulled into the driveway. "You weren't kidding about the house being a fixer-upper."

"Yeah, the neighbors didn't exactly have many kind words to share with us," Piper said as she turned off the engine. "Until Grams died of course, and then everyone came by to ask if we were selling."

"Nice," Paige said sarcastically.

They walked up the front steps and opened the door.

"Is it everything you remembered?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, actually," Paige commented, looking at the photos on the walls. "It's like a time warp."

"Oh please, you only moved out three years ago."

"I know, but it's weird. It's like I just stepped into the 90s or something. I mean, look at this stuff," Paige said, gesturing to the TV. "Grams never got anything new."

"I know," Piper commented. "Try using her computer."

"Well this is a recent addition, at least," Paige said, coming across a photo of her and her sisters.

"If by recent you mean over a year ago," Piper corrected as she peered at the photo. In it, the four of them smiled at the camera during the last Christmas dinner they'd all had together, guilted by Grams into looking like they were actually enjoying each other's company. If Piper's memory served, that might have been the same dinner that had ended with Phoebe chucking wine at Prue's face.

"Were we really that close?" Paige asked.

"Close? Where the hell do you get close?" Piper joked, moving into the next room. Paige decided it wasn't worth telling her sister that she was actually referring to the physical distance between each of them in the photo.

"So I know I'm being paranoid, but we should probably check around the house and make sure nothing got damaged in the earthquake, no gas leaks that are slowly killing us while we sit in here or anything," Piper suggested.

Paige nodded. "I'll take upstairs, you take downstairs?"

"Sounds good."

* * *

Paige scanned the walls of the bedroom she'd formerly shared with Phoebe, resisting the urge to sit down on the bed, go through her dresser and get nostalgic. There would be time for that later, and the purpose of her being here was so that Piper wouldn't get stuck with all the work while the rest of them lazed around. She walked back into the hallway, about to head down the stairs, when she glanced at the attic door.

It had been sealed up for years - since before she was even born - but if Piper wanted her to search the house for anything dangerous, she should at least try and see if she could get in. _Who knows_ , she told herself as she walked down the hall _, there could be an electrical fire blazing away in there, waiting to kill both of us. Or maybe the previous owner was a murderer, and when the next owners open it up they'll find bodies in there and try to have us arrested._

She shook herself out of her runaway thoughts. "Get a grip, Paige," she said out loud.

She walked up to the door and placed a hand on the knob. It turned, but that wasn't unexpected - the doors in the house were so old that they could only be locked with skeleton keys, which had a bolt separate from the handle mechanism. Paige could remember many a frustrating morning of turning the bathroom door handle uselessly as one of her sisters shouted that they'd just be another minute. What was more surprising, however, was that the door actually gave when she pushed on it.

Paige was amazed. She hadn't even had to shove it or anything. Perhaps the earthquake had warped the doorframe, she thought as she stepped through and found a lightswitch on the wall.

"Woah," she said as she looked around. "Piper, get up here!"

* * *

"So she didn't even say goodbye to you?" the cashier asked as she counted out change.

"No, it was pretty much the same as usual," Phoebe answered as she restocked the napkin dispensers.

"That's cold."

"That's Prue." Phoebe picked up a rag and started wiping the counter. "This is why I didn't tell them I was back in the city, y'know? It's like everything I do isn't good enough. I could have come back as a nun and Prue would've asked me where I stole the costume from."

"Hey ladies, less chatting, more working," a stern, pudgy man ordered as he stuck his head out from a side office.

"We _are_ working. We're not allowed to talk at the same time?" the cashier asked.

"No, Emily, you're not," the manager continued. "You especially. You can't be distracted while you're counting out money."

Emily looked as though she had a retort in mind, but bit her tongue.

"And you, Fanny-"

"Phoebe," Phoebe corrected.

"Whatever, just make the drinks, okay?" He ducked back into his office.

Phoebe sighed as she walked over to the espresso machine.

"Get used to it," Emily muttered to her.

"I'm gonna have to," Phoebe replied. She listened as Emily took a customer's order, and began pumping hazelnut syrup into a cup once it was repeated to her. As she did so, she suddenly had the clearest image of her apartment flash before her eyes.

Phoebe paused for a second, wondering why she'd thought of it, and why so vividly, before realizing she still had a drink to make, and started to fill the cup with coffee. As she watched the liquid pour out, the image suddenly returned to her. Phoebe was about to shake it off again, when she realized - had she remembered to put her rent check in the mailbox the other day? Suddenly it wasn't just her apartment she was seeing - it was herself, standing on the sidewalk outside the building next to a trash bag full of her belongings.

Phoebe cried out. The coffee had spilled over and burned her hand.

"Phoebe! Are you okay?" Emily asked, rushing over to her.

"What's going on out here?" the manager asked, emerging once again.

"It's fine, I'm fine," Phoebe insisted, helping Emily mop up the spilled coffee.

She walked over to the trash can to throw out the wet paper towels, and began to untie her apron.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" her manager said. "Get back to work!"

"I'm sorry," Phoebe said, now thoroughly concerned by the possibility of missing her rent payment. "I have to go."

"No way. I just gave you the whole morning off."

Phoebe paused, but then put her apron down on the counter.

"You walk outta here, you're not coming back in!" the manager threatened. Phoebe left.

A/N: I'll be away for a few days this week, so I apologize if the next update might be a little delayed. But I hope everyone likes how the story is going!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I'm back! I would like to thank everyone, from the bottom of my heart, for all of these wonderful reviews. I'm truly touched by the praise and kindness in them. It makes me want to hide my head in shame over the fact that almost everything else I've written for Charmed is all terrible, embarrassing OOC stuff from when I was a teenager.

Chapter Four

"I don't believe it, you got this door open?" Piper asked as she got to the top of the stairs.

"I didn't need to," Paige said, not looking up when her sister came in. She was too busy flipping through an old photo album.

"What do you mean? It's always been locked."

"That's what I thought," Paige said. She thrust the photo album into Piper's hands. "But look at this."

Piper's eyes widened as she looked down at a picture of a smiling woman with long, auburn hair. "That's mom," she realized.

"Yeah," Paige said. "And this..." she said as she flipped the page, "...is mom with _me_ , as a baby. And do you recognize those Barbies in the corner over there? This is room is full of our stuff."

Piper looked around. "Woah, now I'm feeling that time warp effect you were talking about."

"I know, but why is it all up here?" Paige asked. "Grams lied to us. The attic was never sealed up."

"Well, okay," Piper said. "Maybe she just didn't want us playing with this stuff and hurting ourselves. It's like Hoarders in here."

"Maybe," Paige said. "Or maybe she had a terrible secret she hid from us up here. Maybe she was in the mafia."

Piper eyed her sister. "Paige, do you remember what Grams said about your overactive imagination?"

"Yes, and that's why I'm in art school," Paige said proudly.

Piper looked back down at the photo album. "It's weird to see new pictures of mom," she commented.

"And pictures of me as a baby. I was starting to think I was adopted."

"You weren't adopted, Paige," Piper reassured. "It's just that parents dying doesn't really put people in the mood to take pictures of the baby. Even if you were the cutest one of all of us."

Paige smiled. "I know. But I'm already your half-sister. Not having any baby pictures is just another thing that separates me from you guys."

"Oh, Paige, honey," Piper said. "We don't think of you as a half-sister at all. It's just a technicality. We grew up together. Shared hairbrushes. Gave each other chicken pox." Paige laughed. "And you know what..." Piper said as she turned the pages of the album. "These girls all look like sisters to me."

Paige smiled as she looked down at the picture her sister had stopped at. In it, Prue, bigger than the rest of the rugrats by a mile, smiled at the camera as she held her new baby sister. Phoebe and Piper sat on either side of her on the couch, both peering over to look at Paige.

"Man were we cute," Paige commented. Her eyes moved to the next page, where one of the pictures featured herself in the arms of a tall man, beaming with pride as he looked at the baby's happy face. "Is that... my dad?" she asked.

"I think so," Piper smiled. "I was too young to really remember what he looked like, but I'd think it's a safe bet. Prue would know."

Paige gazed at the image longingly. "Why were they taken from us?" she said. She'd meant it as a thought only, and was surprised when she heard herself actually say it.

Piper put her arm around her sister. "Sometimes we can't know the reason for things," she offered. "We just have to accept them."

Paige nodded. She closed the photo album, but kept it in her arms.

"Come on," Piper coaxed, "Let's get to work."

"Well, why don't we work up here?" Paige asked.

"Uh... why would you want to do that?" Piper questioned in return. She was more than ready to step back out of the crowded, musty-smelling room.

"Well, half of it's in boxes already," Paige pointed out. "And who knows, maybe we'll find something really great up here. Some Antiques Roadshow thing that's worth a ton of money. We could sell it, and then keep the house."

Piper laughed. "Even if we do find something like that up here, do you think Prue is really going to let us _sell_ it to some..."

* * *

"...Antique shop?" Prue said in disbelief. "Oh, no, Ms. Graham, you wouldn't want to do that."

"Why not?" the woman sitting across from her asked matter-of-factly. "I'm retired now. I have to worry about my expenses. If I sell my collection, I'd be much better off."

"Financially, yes," Prue admitted. "But what about mentally?" The woman gave her an odd look. "Ms. Graham, your collection is not just a monetary treasure, it's an educational one as well. If you let it go to some shop or auction house, it just collects dust in one person's library for the rest of their life. And you'll never get a fair price for it anyway. But if you donate it to us, every child who walks through the doors of our museum will leave educated on something they may have never even thought about before," Prue pointed out. "We may not be waving a huge paycheck in front of you, but is there really a more noble cause than enriching the lives of others?" she asked. "And we'd of course recognize a donation as generous as this accordingly."

"How so?" the woman asked, now intrigued.

"How does a black tie gala for the opening of the new Lily Graham Educational Wing sound?" Prue asked.

The woman was caught off-guard by the proposal. "You'd... you'd name a wing of the museum after me?" she asked.

"We'd be in your gratitude forever if you entrusted your collection to us. It would be the least we could do."

* * *

Roger practically shoved himself into Prue's office the minute Lily Graham had left. "Well?" he asked.

"Well..." Prue began, sounding grave. She quickly broke the charade by smiling, however. "I just worked a miracle."

Roger laughed. "Prue, you are amazing," he said gratefully.

"All in a day's work," she answered.

"Well tonight we're gonna forget all about that day's work," Roger promised.

"Are we?" Prue smiled.

"I'll take you out to your favorite restaurant, get a nice bottle of champagne..."

"That sounds great, Roger..."

Her fiance's face fell. "You look like you're about to say 'but.'"

" _But_ ," Prue confirmed. "I really should check on my sisters. I had to leave pretty quickly at the funeral, and we should probably do something together..."

"I thought you hated your sisters," Roger interrupted.

Prue was taken aback. "I don't hate them," she contradicted. "Well, Phoebe's not exactly on my good side, but she did seem to be different today, and our grandmother just died..."

"Forget about them," Roger insisted. Prue eyed him curiously. "Just for one night," he clarified. "Relax and celebrate. You just achieved something you've been working on for a month. Can't you wait until tomorrow to start a new project?"

Prue smiled. "I guess you're right," she agreed. Roger pulled her into a kiss.

A/N: Guhhh, I hate writing Roger with Prue so much. There is actually a narrative choice for it though, so we're all going to have to suffer through it, unfortunately. Also, I went into a little more detail about how Paige fits in with the rest of the family in this version of the story. My idea is that Patty died relatively soon after Paige was born. As for Sam... I haven't really decided. I have some ideas, but since I'm only re-writing the pilot episode, I don't want to get ahead of myself. I kind of like the idea of the "wrath" that the Elders threatened Leo and Piper with rearing its head at Sam and Patty if they tried to openly be together and have a family... so maybe it wasn't a demon who killed Patty in this version. And Sam could either be dead too, or forced back 'up there' like Leo was when he and Piper tried to elope... I can only imagine the rage Piper would have for the Elders if she found out they were responsible for her mother's death, though. Hopefully for everyone's sake she wouldn't have her combustion power yet in that timeline!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry the last few chapters have been a bit slow... I promise the plot picks up from here on out!

Response to Boris Yeltsin: I pretty much have the story mapped out already in my head, sorry... Well, as far as re-writing the pilot goes, anyway. If you're talking about beyond that, then it's anybody's game!

Chapter Five

"Whoa, check out the Halloween costumes," Paige said as she unfolded a sequined dress from a large, painted trunk.

"I don't think they're costumes, Paige," Piper informed as she sorted through boxes in a corner.

"So Grams was a flapper then," Paige smiled.

Piper laughed. "Try Grams's Grams. I just found some photos from the 1800s. Who knows how far back the stuff up here goes?"

Paige shrugged and folded up the dress. She was about to put it back in the trunk, when she noticed a green leather edge sticking out from underneath more clothes. Pushing the cloth aside, she uncovered a large, weathered book, with yellowing pages and a strange-looking symbol on the front cover. She groaned slightly as she took the heavy book in her hands and lifted it up.

 _The Book of Shadows_ , read the first page. _1693._

"Try the 1690s," Paige said, responding to Piper's question about the age of the items in the attic.

"What?" Piper asked incredulously, wiping the dust off her hands before coming over to see what her sister held.

"It must be some kind of record," Paige reasoned when she turned to the next page, which contained a detailed, fold-out family tree that looked like it had been extended and added to several times.

"There we are," Piper commented, pointing to the bottom of it. "I'm surprised Grams kept up with it."

"Or maybe mom," Paige said, tracing her fingers over her own name and date of birth.

"'The Warren Line'?" Piper read at the top of the family tree, confused.

"Must be some ancestor," Paige said. "Look." She pointed to the very top of the tree. "Melinda Warren, 1668-1693."

"And her daughter Prudence," Piper noted.

"And _her_ daughter Piper," Paige continued.

"And Phoebe... and Paige... I guess we've been fond of P's for a while," Piper commented.

Paige folded up the document and turned to the next page. Her eyebrows furrowed as she read over its contents.

" _The Last Testament of Melinda Warren_ ," she said aloud. " _I write in quicke haste for I have foreseen mine end in a vision. In a fortnight I will be put on trial and hanged for witchcraft_." Paige exchanged an incredulous look with her sister, but continued to read. " _My possessions are fewe and it matters not to whom they passe, but my gift is another matter. For the sake of my daughter Prudence I will not prove my magick. Tho it may save my life it could later end hers if she be declared a witch. Therefor, I leave only my powers - telekinesis, molecular immobilization, and premonition - to my descendants, and this book for instruction and guidance in them. The Warren line will continue on, and each generation shall growe stronger and more skilled in the craft, until the time arrives when three sisters are borne. These sisters, united by blood and the strengthe of their ancestors, will be the most powerful witches the world hath ever seen. The Heavens will shake when they embrace their destiny as The Charmed Ones, and they shall rid the world of all the evil forces that plague it. The Power of Three will set us Free!"_

Both Paige and Piper were silent for a moment after Paige finished the text. "So, I guess we've been crazy for a while too," Piper said finally.

"That is so cool, our ancestor was a witch!" Paige exclaimed.

"Yeah, and it sounds like people didn't like it very much."

"That's the thing, I've studied up on witchcraft," Paige continued. "Wiccans have always been portrayed as this creepy, evil group, but they aren't. They're usually forces of good, and they practice being one with the Earth."

"Oh, so, ancient hippies," Piper quipped.

Paige rolled her eyes at her sister. "Hey, if it wasn't for me, maybe you guys could've been these magical Charmed Ones," she pointed out.

"Oh, please," Piper said as she returned to cleaning.

* * *

"No, but I have the rent money right here!" Phoebe protested desperately to the angry woman.

"I don't care. You don't pay up at the end of the month, you're out," she answered unsympathetically.

"I just forgot to put the check in the mailbox!" Phoebe tried again. "I'm so sorry, it won't happen again. Please, I can't lose this apartment."

The woman remained unmoved. "Honey, you just did," she declared. "Clear your stuff out by the end of the day."

"By the end of...?" Phoebe said, exasperated. Her landlady had already left. "Could this day get any worse?" she asked herself as she dumped her freshly-cleaned laundry into a garbage bag, feeling an overwhelming sense of deja-vu.

* * *

Piper rubbed her neck as she sat down on a funky 60s-style chair, eager for a break from all of the packing and sorting. She looked over at the large old book that still sat out, shrugging to herself before picking it up to idly flip through it.

Her eyes widened briefly as she began to turn the pages - each beautifully illustrated, but depicting grotesque figures - before realizing that she shouldn't have expected any differently from what Paige had read earlier. She remarked to herself that the book almost seemed to be some sort of encyclopedia on evil creatures. _What was it that Melinda's will had said about fighting evil?_ Piper flipped back towards the beginning of the book to refresh her memory. Instead of finding that page, however, she stopped at another one.

"Paige..." she began cautiously.

"What's up?" Paige asked, trying to hide that she'd been playing with the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots she'd found instead of boxing them up.

"Where did you say you found that spell we said at Grams's funeral?"

"It's not a spell, it's a blessing," Paige corrected.

"Well here, it's a spell," Piper informed her.

Confused, Paige walked over to look at the book. "Oh my god, that is so weird," she said when she looked down and found the same words she'd recited earlier on the page.

"Yeah, and here it doesn't say anything about eulogizing, it's called 'To Awaken the Charmed Ones,'" Piper pointed out.

Paige furrowed her brow. "The site I found it on definitely said it was a funeral ritual," she attested.

"Well it sounds like it is," Piper agreed. "But it also talks about taking on a legacy..."

"Wasn't Grams talking about something like that before she died?" Paige remembered. "Destiny, legacy, all that stuff?"

"Yes..." Piper remembered warily. "Though I assumed she was just incoherent, not talking about _witchcraft_." Her voice sounded both annoyed and concerned.

"I'll look up the website I got it from," Paige offered, trying to prevent her sister's exasperation from growing. She pulled out her phone and typed away on it for a few minutes, saying nothing, while Piper continued to flip through the book. "That's so weird..." Paige said finally.

"Oh, something else is weird? What a surprise."

"I can't find the ritual anywhere," Paige said. "I swear I found it online yesterday, it was the first thing that popped up in my search."

"The Heavens will shake when they embrace their destiny," Piper read again. "Remember that little earthquake earlier? I think you turned us into the Charmed Ones."

"Yeah right, stop trying to freak me out," Paige protested.

"You? I'm freaking myself out," Piper informed with a strained smile. "I might be telekinetic, or start seeing the future, or have..." She squinted as she read the words. " _Molecular immobilization_ ," she said slowly. "Whatever that is."

"Look, I'm sorry for freaking you out," Paige apologized. "But we live in San Francisco, earthquakes happen all the time," she reminded. "And as for that Power of Three? There's four of us."

"Ah, but remember, you're only our half-sister," Piper teased, remembering Paige's earlier comments.

Paige crossed her arms. "Very funny."

"I'm sure you're right, it's nothing to worry about," Piper said, closing the book. She set it down on top of a nearby box and stretched as she stood up. "Of course, we could sit on that broom in the corner and see if we start flying."

Paige was now looking thoroughly unamused. "I should have just left that book where I found it," she muttered. "Come on. _We_ are going to stop fooling around, and _you_ , missy, are not going to make fun of witchcraft anymore, because I find that insulting, and _nothing_ weird is happening."

As she finished her sentence, her cell phone rang. Piper eyed her, but refrained from making any further comment.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Paige?" Phoebe asked, struggling to hear over the crackling of the old, malfunctioning payphone.

"Phoebe? What's that noise? Is everything okay?"

"Not really, I just got kicked out of my apartment."

"What?"

"I'll explain later. Can you pick me up?"

"Absolutely. Text me your address and I'll be right there."

"Well, actually, I still don't have a cell phone..."

"Oh," Paige realized. She nodded as Phoebe told her where to pick her up and then hung up the phone.

"What's wrong?" Piper asked.

"Phoebe just lost her apartment."

"Oh no, what happened?"

"She didn't say. Is it okay if I take your car? I'll come back with an extra hand to help clean," Paige pointed out.

"Ha," Piper said. "More like an extra mouth, and an extra load of laundry, and an extra person's stuff to clean out when I finally sell this place."

"Well, would you rather I leave her out on the street?" Paige asked.

"No, of course not," Piper answered. "It's just that I was trying to move _out_ , not move someone else _in._ "

"Don't worry," Paige reassured. "If I know Phoebe, she'll be gone again in no time."

A/N: I figured Melinda Warren probably wouldn't be writing in the same form of English that we use today, so I tried to give her words a bit of Shakesperian flare. I found out in doing so, however, that it's incredibly hard to find quick writer's references on writing in faux-Early Modern English. So, I took what I could find and changed a few words accordingly, and added some extra e's for good measure, lol. And I chose to say that Melinda was hanged rather than burned at the stake here, since witches weren't actually burned in the 1690s. I also made a point of referencing Paige's entry on the family tree, because it always annoyed me that they never added her in the show!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Response to Boris Yeltsin: I definitely will! I'm not sure how much more I'm going to explore of this AU beyond the pilot – at least not for a while – because soon I'm going to be tied up with a big move for grad school. (To San Francisco, in fact!) But if you have any ideas of your own, don't hesitate to create your own "episodes" based on this!

Chapter Six

Piper tried her hardest to focus on cleaning, but no matter what, she kept finding herself looking over her shoulder at the book. _This is ridiculous_ , she thought to herself. _I've never heard anything about any ancestors who were executed for witchcraft_. She hadn't really heard anything about _any_ ancestors, for that matter... Piper suddenly realized how very little her Grams had actually shared about their family history.

She glanced at the book again. _No, no, no, this is stupid_. Grams would have probably mentioned something about being endowed with magical powers and chosen to fight evil. _But she did say an awful lot about destiny..._ She snapped out of it again. It was fun to joke about with Paige, but the whole idea of being witches was starting to scare her. She pulled out her phone and decided to call her more rational sister.

"Prue Halliwell," the eldest answered professionally.

"Prue, I'm calling your cell phone, why do you answer like you're at work?"

"Because I _am_ at work, Piper," Prue informed.

"Still?" Piper asked.

"Not for much longer," Prue reassured her. "I just closed the deal on one of the biggest accessions we've ever gotten. Roger and I are going out to celebrate."

"Great," Piper said, trying to hide her worries. Now that she was talking to someone else, it all started to seem a little silly.

"So what did you call me about, anyway?" Prue asked, gathering her things together.

"Oh, nothing really..." Piper said, not sure if she wanted to admit the real reason.

"Well, Piper, I can't really make small talk right now, I'm kinda busy," Prue informed, annoyed.

"Busy," Piper repeated, knowing her sister was referring to her dinner date. "Right."

"So I'll call you back when I have some time, alright?"

 _Sure you will_ , Piper thought. "Alright," she answered. "Hey, just out of curiosity, do you remember ever seeing an old book in Grams's house?"

"An old book?" Prue repeated. "You're gonna have to be a little more specific."

"A really old book," Piper clarified. "Like, 1690s."

"What? Grams can't have anything that old."

"Well, Paige found a book while we were cleaning stuff up, and it says it was written in 1693. Or at least started then."

"And you picked it up, flipped through the pages?" Prue asked as she closed the door to her office and started heading down the hall.

"Some very interesting pages," Piper commented.

"Okay, well, if the book was that old, you wouldn't be able to do that. Unless Grams somehow had a lightproof, humidity-proof, bug-proof and acid free container for that book, it would be falling apart," Prue informed. "The binding would have come unstitched, the cover would leave a dirty residue on your hands, and the pages would crumble if you tried to turn them."

"Okay, I get it. You work in a museum," Piper said.

"Piper, it's a reproduction. People make those all the time," Prue said. She approached Roger's office. "I'll take a look at it sometime if you want, but I doubt it's anything valuable. I gotta go."

"I love-" Piper began, but paused when she heard a click on the other end. "-you," she finished. She sighed, and looked over at the book again. "You hear that?" she said out loud. "You're fake." She turned around and got back to cleaning. _Unless you're not falling apart because you're magical_.

"Okay, I am going crazy," she commented aloud.

* * *

"Thanks," Phoebe said as Paige helped her load her bags of stuff into the car.

"Got anything else upstairs?" Paige asked.

Phoebe shook her head. "Not back in town long enough and not making enough money to have anything else," she said.

"Oh," Paige said. "Well, if it makes you feel better, I'm not really any better off. It's just that the cost of my education won't bite me in the ass until I have to start paying off my student loans."

"Ugh, I am so glad I didn't go to college," Phoebe said as they climbed into the car.

"Are you really?" Paige asked.

Phoebe shrugged. "It doesn't seem like a wise decision, I know," she admitted. "But devoting years of my life to learning one random profession out of a million doesn't seem like a good idea to me, either. I have no idea what I want to do yet."

"And when you figure that out?"

"Then school, probably. Until then... job hunting."

"I thought you had a job," Paige remembered from earlier.

"This morning, I had a job," Phoebe clarified. "And an apartment. Tonight, I have neither."

"How did that happen?" Paige asked, surprised.

"Well, I was making a latte..."

Paige took her eyes from the road for a second to give her sister a puzzled look.

"The job was at a coffee shop," Phoebe clarified. "And I... saw my apartment."

"Huh?"

"I dunno, I guess in the back of my mind I knew that I forgot to turn in my rent check, and suddenly I just _saw_ it."

"Weird. Too bad that didn't happen yesterday."

"Tell me about it," Phoebe agreed. "But it's weird... as soon as I realized about the rent, I saw _me_."

"What, like in a mirror?"

"No. Standing outside of my apartment, trashbag full of clothes in hand, looking absolutely miserable," Phoebe clarified. "In short, twenty minutes ago."

Paige's eyes lit up. "Except you saw it this afternoon..."

"I had to leave. I was too worried about losing my apartment. So I lost my job too, out of some weird sense that I had to stop the images in my head from happening. It's too bad I didn't see _that_ outcome."

"But you saw _an_ outcome," Paige said. "You saw the future."

"I had a very vivid idea of what would happen if I didn't get my rent check to my landlady, I wouldn't call that seeing the future."

"I would," Paige realized. "That was a Premonition."

"Excuse me?" Phoebe said.

* * *

"Oh Grams, why'd you have to keep so much stuff up here?" Piper asked aloud as she stood in front of a towering mess of chairs, boxes, and god only knew what else. Wondering how she was going to get any of it down, she looked around hopefully for a stepstool or a ladder, and sighed when she found none. _I should just wait for Phoebe and Paige to get back_ , she thought. But of course, she knew how that scenario went. Any time they'd been given chores to do as kids, Phoebe would always end up distracting the rest of them, and then they'd get scolded later for not doing as they were told. Grams might not be there to scold her anymore, but Piper would still feel bad if she just let the mess stay this way.

Taking a deep breath, she held her arms up over her head, reaching for the highest item in the stack that she could get at. She'd hoped it would be light, and she could bring the top of the pile to the floor before trying to maneuver the rest. Instead, it didn't budge. She pulled a little harder.

"Oh, come on," she said to herself, utterly frustrated and exhausted. Feeling her arms ache as the blood rushed out of them, she finally gave up and dropped them to her side. She figured she'd give the pile another go in a minute, when without warning, everything started to collapse.

Piper screamed and threw her hands up over her head as the tower of boxes and toys came flying down at her. She braced herself for a heavy impact, fully expecting to die in the dumbest way possible, crushed and buried in a heap of her family history. After a few seconds, however, she still hadn't felt anything. Piper wondered if everything had somehow miraculously missed her, but she realized she hadn't heard anything crash to the floor, either. She finally dared to open her eyes and look up.

Piper gasped. Hanging in the air, less than a foot from her head, was an overturned box, its lid thrown completely open in the collapse and a heavy china lamp falling out of it. The lamp, too, was inexplicably stuck in the air. Piper took a few steps backwards, away from the frozen chaos, and wondered what exactly it was that she was seeing. Hesitantly, she looked back over her shoulder at the book.

"Molecular Immobilization," she said in disbelief. Piper stood blinking at the strange phenomenon, trying to suppress the rising feeling that such a thing could actually happen. _Had_ actually happened.

She was a witch.

Without warning, the jumble started moving again, crashing to the ground in a deafening boom of smashed china and fallen metals. Piper screamed at the sound. She placed her hand over her heart as she realized that whatever Molecular Immobilization was, it had just saved her life. Without another hesitation, she picked up her phone.

* * *

"Look, I'll show you when we get home, but I don't think what you saw was just your imagination," Paige said again. Without the book in front of her to show Phoebe, explaining her theory was almost impossible.

"Alright, maybe it was a little weird," Phoebe agreed. She slouched in the passenger's seat, tired of the rush hour traffic they'd been stuck in for miles. Her sister's fanciful ideas were dissolving into the air as she found herself too bored to focus on them, instead staring aimlessly at the reflection of their car in the back of the one they were following.

Paige's phone rang. "Hello?" she said as she picked it up. "Piper, wait, slow down..."

Phoebe gave a few seconds' interest to the conversation. She wasn't sure exactly what was going on without being able to hear Piper, but it sounded like Paige was expounding on her magic idea again. Knowing she'd just hear Piper neurotically repeat whatever she was saying when they got back, Phoebe turned again to look at the line of traffic. As Paige inched up to the car in front of them, Phoebe froze. The reflection of their car was still there, but something was wrong with it. It was mangled and crushed, and steam poured from the bent hood.

Phoebe gasped. She looked at the actual hood, just to confirm that it was still fine. The light turned green ahead of them.

"Wait..." Phoebe cautioned.

"Piper, just stay calm until we get back..."

"Paige, stop..."

"See if there's anything else the book says..."

"Paige!" Phoebe shouted.

"What? It's green!" Paige said as they rolled forward. A car slammed into them from the intersecting street.

A/N: The first cliffhanger chapter, haha! I kind of like the idea of Phoebe's premonitions not always being so straightforward as they were in the show, and manifesting in things like inaccurate reflections, changing newspaper headlines, etc. Of course, I'm sure she would still get her traditional premonitions as well. And I added in Prue's expertise on what condition the Book of Shadows _should_ be in, because I always wondered why a book that was so old wasn't falling apart. I settled on the idea of it being another aspect of its magical protection.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Response to Dominus Trinus: Yeah, I guess words like "telekinesis" and "molecular immobilization" probably wouldn't be in Melinda's vocabulary, but I also liked the idea of the sisters not having much of a clue about what their powers were supposed to be, so they'd be even more surprised when they happened!

Chapter Seven

Piper sat wringing her hands in the attic, trying to calm herself down. _What's taking them so long? Even rush hour should be done by now_. She looked over again at the smashed pile of storage that had almost killed her, still in disbelief that she'd actually stopped it in mid-air. She'd tried to replicate the effect again by throwing other objects and opening her hands at them, but it had only added to the mess of broken things she had to clean up. She sighed. If Paige's phone hadn't died, she could at least be trying to talk to her about this right now.

Absent of other ideas, she picked the book up again. As she opened to Melinda's prophecy, she felt a shiver. Would she be persecuted for witchcraft now too? Piper tried to reason with herself. No one was executed for their beliefs anymore. Her own sister had dabbled in various religions, Wicca included, and it hadn't inspired anyone to want to kill her. But then again, she didn't have any powers.

 _Yet_ , Piper realized. Now that Piper apparently had something, Paige could have _Preminition,_ or _Telekinesis_ , she thought, reading over the words again. And what about Phoebe, and Prue? How did four sisters fit into this idea of "the Power of Three"?

She flipped the pages aimlessly, still finding the pictures unsettling. She began to actually read the entries that accompanied them this time, however. " _An acid-spitting demon who has been known to be responsible for the deaths of over a hundred witches... A warlock who will stop at nothing to steal a witch's power and kill her once she is defenseless... An upper-level demon, immune to the effects of molecular immobilization... A creature who can find and identify witches from scent alone..."_

Piper started to feel a chill. Melinda had said the Charmed Ones were supposed to purge the world of evil, but she hadn't realized just how much evil it meant. And how easily it might be able to find them, if the stories in this book were true. Piper began to wonder if anything was already lurking out there somewhere, picking up her scent.

She nearly had a heart attack when her phone rang. "Hello?" she said hesitantly when she picked it up, not recognizing the number.

"Piper, before you freak out, we're fine," Paige's voice said.

"Paige? Where are you?" Piper asked.

"The hospital," Paige answered. "I'm sorry about your car."

"Oh my god," Piper said. "I'll be right there."

* * *

"What the hell happened?" Piper asked as she saw her two sisters, Phoebe sporting a cast on her wrist and Paige a large bandage on her forehead.

"Some idiot ran a red light," Phoebe answered.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Piper asked. "Paige, you're really scratched up."

"Pavement," Paige answered, seeming both proud and weary at the same time.

"Oh my god, you were thrown from the car?" Piper asked in alarm.

"I guess so," Paige replied. "I don't really remember. But I'm fine, they already did an MRI. It's just scrapes."

"You're lucky," Piper said, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

"Tell me about it," Phoebe said, rubbing her hand over her cast.

"Anyway," Paige continued, "what were you saying when you called me earlier?"

"I was saying I..." Piper looked around, and decided to lower her voice. "I think that book might've been right about us."

"So do I," Paige agreed.

Piper was surprised by this answer. "You... you do?"

Paige looked over at their other sister. "Phoebe saw the future."

"Yeah, but not in enough time to do anything about it," Phoebe said, frustrated.

Piper gave her a confused look.

"She saw your car, all smashed up, just seconds before it got all smashed up," Paige clarified.

"I really wish you'd quit reminding me about my car," Piper commented.

"Paige told me what you guys found in that book," Phoebe informed. "It sounds weird, but I can't explain what happened in any other way."

"And neither can I," Paige concurred. "So... what did you do?" she asked, guessing Piper's reason for suddenly believing the book's prophecy.

"I stopped a bunch of Gram's crap from falling on my head and crushing me," Piper answered.

"Stopped how?" Phoebe asked.

"I don't know, it just kind of... froze."

"Froze?" Phoebe repeated.

"Yeah, in mid-air. Just hanging there. I moved, and a few seconds later, splat."

"Molecular Immobilization," Paige recalled.

"This is starting to sound pretty cool," Phoebe commented.

"No, it is not cool, Phoebe!" Piper protested. "I was just reading through that book, there are a ton of demons and warlocks and whatever else out there who want to kill us!"

"Well, we'll just read about them, study up, and get ready to fight them off," Paige reasoned.

"Who says we'll have the chance?" Piper asked. "Some of them are immune to our powers. Some of them can teleport. They could strike at any second."

"Normally I'd say you're being paranoid, but that actually doesn't sound so good," Phoebe realized.

"Are you two okay to go, or are they keeping you here overnight?"

"They're just about to discharge us. We can regroup at home and figure out what we're supposed to do about all this," Paige suggested.

"Guys?" Phoebe asked. "Aren't we forgetting about someone?"

* * *

"Here's to the greatest Curator there ever was," Roger said, holding up his champagne glass.

" _Roger_ ," Prue protested, laughing. She had already loosened up from the drink she'd had at the restaurant.

"I'm serious," Roger said. "When I hired you, I knew it would pay off."

"Well, yeah." Prue winked.

Roger smiled. "I meant professionally." He sat down on the coach and put an arm around his fiancée. "Though this was an added benefit."

"I agree," Prue smiled, snuggling up closer to him. She sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"I guess I just feel kind of guilty," she said, putting her glass on the table. "Celebrating, when I just buried my grandmother."

"You're celebrating your accomplishments," Roger reminded her. "There's nothing wrong with that. It just happens to share a day with something unpleasant. And anyway, don't they say you're supposed to celebrate life, not mourn death?"

"Yeah, I guess," Prue said. "But here I am celebrating, while my sisters are-"

"Living their own lives," Roger finished. "Remember what I told you? You've spent your whole life worrying about them and looking after them. You have your own life to worry about now. They can take care of themselves."

Prue nodded. As she began to relax, however, her phone screen lit up. "Maybe not," she commented, seeing Piper's name on the Caller ID. Calling just to chat was nothing unusual, but twice in one day was unheard of. "Hello?"

"Prue, it's Phoebe."

"Phoebe?" Prue repeated, her concern transforming into annoyance.

"No time to explain, Prue, we're coming over."

"You're _what_? Who's we?"

"All of us. Me, Piper, Paige," Phoebe clarified.

"Phoebe, what's going on?" Prue asked, even more annoyed.

"Paige and I got into a car accident earlier," Phoebe answered as the three of them stepped off of a bus and started rushing down the street. "Don't worry, we're fine, just some bruises."

"Okay, that's good, but why-"

"I _saw_ the accident before it happened."

"...Excuse me?"

"Has anything weird happened to you today, Prue?"

Prue scoffed. "You mean other than burying my grandmother, you showing up out of nowhere, and now this conversation? Phoebe, don't tell me you came back here just so I'd have to put up with your _crap_ again!"

Phoebe stopped walking. Paige and Piper turned around and frantically gestured to her to keep going.

"Look, Prue," she answered. "I'm sorry about what I've done in the past, but right now, I'm talking to you because you could be in danger. Because like it or not, you _need_ me right now. And I need you, too, and so do Piper and Paige. So can you please, just once, hear me out?"

Piper grabbed Phoebe by the shoulder to urge her on.

Prue sighed. "What's going on?" she said quietly.

"Piper said she called you earlier, told you about a book she found..." Phoebe explained as they ran.

"Yeah, I told her it was a fake."

"It's not a fake, Prue," Phoebe informed. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's a book about us. About our family."

"Okay..."

"We're _witches_ , Prue."

" _Phoebe_..."

"Look, Paige and Piper didn't think it was real when they read it, but then I saw the future, and Piper froze a bunch of stuff in mid-air. Something weird is going on."

"Did this happen before or after your car accident, and did they give you any painkillers?"

"Piper wasn't in the car, Prue, and she believes it, too."

Piper grabbed the phone as they ran. "She's telling the truth, Prue," she said with ragged breaths. "The book said something about three sisters who are supposed to be the most powerful witches in history."

"And you think that's us," Prue inferred. "Is this about that spell thing Paige made us read today?"

"Kinda," Piper answered. "Actually I think what that did was unlock our powers, somehow."

"Okay, so I'll be on the lookout for _powers_ ," Prue said overdramatically. "Can't we talk about this tomorrow? Why do you have to come over?"

"Because, Prue. I looked through that book, and there are evil creatures out there that want to kill us!" Piper said frantically. "Until we figure out exactly what this is and what we're supposed to do about it, we need to stick together, for our own safety."

Prue sighed. "Alright, fine, whatever."

"We're on your street, we'll be there soon," Piper said, hanging up the phone.

Prue rolled her eyes as she put her own phone back down on the table. "I cannot believe my sisters," she said. "They think we're-" Her words were cut off by a hand covering her mouth.

A/N: The plot thickens! And did anyone notice any similarities between this car accident and the one in A Paige from the Past? My idea is that Paige orbed out of the car here, though neither she nor Phoebe have realized it yet. Only a few chapters left now, stay tuned!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Did I surprise anyone with the plot twist of Roger being evil in this version? I just figured if we already had one jerk boyfriend, adding Jeremy in would be pretty redundant. And now my hatred of Roger can be more justified, lol.

Chapter Eight

Prue struggled with the ropes that bound her hands behind her back. She gritted her teeth angrily against the cloth that kept her from crying for help. The last time she'd felt this much rage and betrayal had been when she was eight years old, after she learned about the accident that meant her mother was never coming home again.

The door intercom buzzed impatiently, no doubt her sisters desperately trying to find a way in.

"Oh, I'm going to be telling this story for years," Roger said triumphantly. "About how easily I overpowered a Charmed One."

Prue grunted through the cloth in her mouth.

"Of course, if you factor in all of the dating stuff, the seduction, the engagement ring, then I guess it wasn't so easy," he clarified. "But I had to be sure you were who I thought you were." He picked up Prue's champagne glass from the table and finished it off. "The fourth sister threw me off a bit. Quite unexpected. But I'd done my research. You, my sweetheart, are indeed descended from Melinda Warren. And when you and your sisters all gathered to bury your grandmother today, you inherited the full power of your family's line. Is that what Phoebe was calling to talk about?"

Roger laughed. Prue clenched her fists.

"I wonder which power I'll get from you?" he asked. "It's been so exhausting, waiting for the old woman to croak, waiting for something I could steal before I kill you." He opened a nearby drawer, and pulled out an ornately-handled dagger. "I hope I get something good. Something I can use against your sisters." He grinned again. "But really, once you're dead, they won't stand a chance."

Prue's anger boiled over inside her. Not only did she want Roger dead to pay for what he'd done to her, but the thought of him killing her sisters filled her with a white-hot rage. Suddenly, she felt an intense pressure behind her eyes, as if an entire day's migraine had appeared all at once. She panicked, thinking her head was going to explode. However, as soon as it appeared, she felt it pass through her somehow – and shoot straight for Roger. He flew back across the room and landed on the glass table, smashing it to pieces.

 _"Prue!"_ came a shout from outside. Her sisters were on her floor now, in the hall outside. Someone must have let them into the building, but the door was still locked.

"So it's telekinesis," Roger muttered as he struggled to his feet. "It figures, with you."

"Prue, are you okay?" Paige shouted. "Let us in!"

Prue breathed faster as Roger got back to his feet. She knew he wasn't going to make the mistake of waiting to kill her twice. She watched as his grip tightened around the dagger.

"All the pent-up emotions..." Roger said. "Such an angry little bitch." He ran towards her.

Prue felt the surge of rage again, and this time, focused it on the weapon. It flew out of Roger's hand and slid across the floor.

"Dammit!" Roger cursed. He slapped Prue across the face instead before turning to retrieve the dagger.

But now Prue was getting the hang of things. The angrier she got, the more aware she was of the power inside her. In her mind. She turned to the door, where her sisters were still shouting and knocking frantically. Prue stared at the lock on the door, focusing all of her thoughts onto it, shutting everything else out. _Move_ , she thought. _Move, dammit!_

The lock clicked open. Prue's sisters fell inside in a tumble as the door finally gave way for them.

"Prue, are you okay?" Piper said as she got to her feet. Prue screamed as best as she could through the cloth.

Piper only had a second to realize what was going on before Roger's dagger came at her. All three of them screamed, and Piper flung her hands in front of her face to shield the blow. After a second, however, she realized that she felt no pain.

"Oh... my god," Phoebe said, seeing the effects of Piper's power for the first time. Roger stood frozen on the spot, suddenly looking more like a wax figure in a Halloween show than an actual murderous threat.

"That is so cool," Paige commented as they walked around Roger and began to untie Prue.

"Okay," Prue said as soon as the gag was removed, "I believe you guys now."

" _Roger_ tried to kill you?" Paige said in disbelief.

"Yeah. He wanted to steal my power. All our powers," Prue said, rubbing her hands where the rope had been.

"That means he's a warlock," Piper inferred from what she'd read in the book earlier. Seeing the dazed look on her older sister's face, she added, "Sorry, honey."

"It's just so-" Prue began. She paused, however, when Roger's knife suddenly came flying down through the air. _"-strange_ ," she finished, her voice now more distressed.

Roger looked at the empty air in front of him in confusion, but quickly turned around to face them all.

"Yeah, it doesn't last," Piper informed them.

"Uh... now what?" Phoebe asked. The four of them began to back away, but they knew they were running out of room fast.

"It doesn't matter," Roger taunted them. "Your powers are just a nuisance. Use them all you want, I'll still kill each and every one of you."

Prue clenched her fists, willing the surge of anger to come to her again and throwing Roger backwards.

"Telekinesis? Nice job, sis," Paige commented.

"Okay, what are we supposed to do?" Prue asked. "Piper, you said we're supposed to be powerful witches, but we can't beat him like this."

"I don't know!" Piper said frantically. "Every warlock in the book was different."

Prue flung Roger to the floor again, desperate to buy them as much time as she could.

"I'm enjoying getting to see what these powers can do," Roger laughed. "They'll be quite useful to me."

"What else did the book say?" Prue asked impatiently.

"Uh, it said the heavens will shake when the Charmed Ones embrace their destiny..." Paige recited from her memory Melinda Warren's prophecy. "They'll be the most powerful witches... they'll rid the world of evil... The power of three will set us free."

Suddenly, Roger doubled over in pain.

"What was that, what happened?" Piper asked.

"I don't know," Phoebe answered. "Paige, say that last part again."

"The Power of Three will set us Free," Paige repeated. Roger let out a groan.

"The Power of Three will set us Free," Phoebe joined in. Roger seemed unable to move. "Guys, it's a spell!" Phoebe realized. "Take my hands!" She grabbed Piper's easily, but Prue instinctively pulled hers away from her little sister's grasp.

"Come on, Prue," Phoebe looked at her desperately. "If you wanna live, we have to do this together."

Prue glared at her, but took her hand.

"The Power of Three will set us Free!" They chanted in unison. "The Power of Three will set us Free! The Power of Three will set us Free! The Power of Three will set us Free!"

Roger had now fallen to his knees, screaming as if he'd been stabbed.

"Come on you guys, keep it going!" Paige yelled over the commotion.

" _The Power of Three will set us Free!_ "

Suddenly, Roger's scream sounded as though it was echoing all around them. Without warning, he burst into flames, and then exploded into a blast of energy that spread out across the room and knocked the four sisters off their feet.

A/N: One chapter left! In which I will (hopefully) tie up all the remaining loose ends, and set up this version of the Charmed story for any future potential :)


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Here it is, the final chapter! Where I will hopefully clarify exactly how the Power of Three would theoretically work in this scenario. Thank you all for the wonderful reviews. I especially loved casanova. 's offer of 15 episodes for CBS, lol. I am so happy that so many people have enjoyed this fic, and I'm glad I could breathe new life into the fandom in my own small way. :)

Chapter Nine

After a moment of stunned silence, all four of them began to groan and cough.

"Is everyone okay?" Prue asked, rising to her feet.

"Yeah," Paige answered, sitting up. "Though if I didn't have a concussion before, I probably do now."

"Is he gone?" Phoebe asked as she brushed herself off.

"Yeah," Prue said as she looked around at the destruction that was her apartment not half an hour ago. "He's gone."

Piper gulped as she glanced from the debris back to her eldest sister. "Prue..." she began.

"Let's go," Prue cut her off. "Something tells me someone's gonna want an explanation for this." Before anyone else could be allowed to comment, she began walking towards the door. As the others opened it, Prue turned back to rummage through the disheveled decor for her purse.

"Hey," Paige offered, also hanging behind. "You okay?"

"I don't know right now," Prue answered honestly, betraying as little emotion as possible.

Paige wasn't surprised – this had always been her sister's way, and she knew that the last thing Prue would want at the moment was someone trying to break her out of it. Instead she put her arm around her sister's as a small show of sympathy. "Come on," she encouraged as they walked out of the apartment.

* * *

Piper, Phoebe and Paige sat on a bench by the parking lot of Prue's building, staring at the flashing lights of the firetruck and police cars in front of the main entrance.

"Two ambulances in one day's gotta be a record even for you, Phoebe," Paige joked.

"Yeah, but it's because I saved the world," Phoebe reminded.

"I don't know about the _world_ ," Piper clarified. "But you did save your sister from being killed by her evil fiancé."

"Yeah..." Phoebe agreed. "I can't believe how good that felt. I mean, I was scared, obviously..." Piper and Paige nodded. "But when he exploded like that..."

"Shhh, Prue's still trying to convince the police it was a gas leak," Paige reminded.

"Oh, right," Phoebe realized. "Anyway, I know what we just did was insane..." Piper and Paige nodded again. "But I kinda think I like this Charmed Ones thing. I was just saying earlier today that I didn't know what to do with my life, and now... I'm Wonder Woman!"

"Let's not push it too far," Piper commented.

"Yeah, I know," Phoebe answered. "You and Prue get the cool powers, anyway. What am I supposed to do to the bad guys?"

"At least you have a power, Phoebe," Piper reminded. She looked over at her youngest sister. "You okay, Paige?"

"Yeah," Paige answered, putting on as cheerful of a face as she could. "Now I know what it feels like to be a squib in _Harry Potter."_ Phoebe gave her a sympathetic smile. _"_ Like I said, I am only your half-sister."

"But you're still a witch. You're descended from Melinda Warren too," Piper pointed out.

"And Roger flinched when you said the Power of Three spell," Phoebe reminded.

Paige chuckled. "Yeah, that's me. Making demons everywhere flinch. Watch out!" she joked.

"Oh Paige, I'm sorry," Phoebe said sympathetically.

"It's okay, really," Paige reassured her. "Besides..." She looked over at Piper. "A wise woman once told me that you don't always know the reason why things happen, but you have to accept them anyway."

Piper smiled back at her as Prue rejoined them.

"So, did they buy it?" Paige asked.

"Well, I'm not in handcuffs, and that's all I'm gonna worry about for right now," Prue answered. She looked back up at her building. "That and where to stay for tonight."

"Well y'know, there's a little place right here in the city that has an empty bed just your size," Piper reminded.

"Ooh, table for three?" Phoebe asked. Prue eyed her. "I got kicked out of my apartment," Phoebe mumbled. To her surprise, however, Prue didn't admonish her. "You're not gonna say anything?" she asked.

"As much as you've made me want to tear my hair out in the past," Prue said, "You did just save my life tonight. I know I'm not the most forgiving person, but even I know that counts for something."

"Oh, thank you, Prue," Phoebe said, jumping to her feet to hug her sister, who for the first time in years didn't recoil.

"Y'know..." Paige started.

"What?" Piper asked.

"Weren't we just saying that we should stick together until we figure this whole Charmed Ones thing out?" Paige asked.

"Uh-huh..." Piper replied.

"Well, none of us can afford to live in Grams's house on our own," she realized. "But maybe..."

"You think we should live together again?" Prue asked.

"Oh god, I am never getting another hot shower," Phoebe realized.

"I'm just saying, Piper lives there already, and you two need places to live. I have my apartment, but I could really do without the rats..."

"You'd commute to Palo Alto?" Piper asked.

"It's just a train ride away," Paige shrugged, suddenly enthusiastic about this idea.

"I don't know..." Prue started.

"Well, it might not work out," Paige admitted. "But we won't know until we try. And you, my dear, don't have a lot of other options right now."

Prue still looked unsure, but smiled. "Alright," she said. "I guess we're sisters again."

* * *

"Where did you get all of this stuff from?" Piper grunted as she and Prue struggled to carry a desk through the front door. "I thought your apartment blew up."

"Not all of it," Prue reminded. "Roger may have been a demon, but at least he was a rich demon."

"Warlock," Paige corrected as she came downstairs, holding the Book of Shadows.

"Are you still reading that thing?" Prue asked.

"This _thing_ is our family history," Paige said. "And the only guideline we have for how to save your butts from actual demons. Just because I don't have powers myself doesn't mean I can't help you out."

"Well that's very thoughtful, Paige, but right now, could you help us out by moving Prue's stuff in?" Piper asked.

"Knock knock!" Phoebe said as she walked through the open front door. In her arms she held a fluffy gray cat.

"Whoa, whoa, you were supposed to go to the shelter to find a job, not a pet!" Prue complained.

"I know Prue, but look at this," Phoebe said. She turned the cat's collar towards her sister for inspection. It bore the same symbol that appeared on the front of the Book. "That _cannot_ be a coincidence. This cat was meant for us."

"Uh, no it wasn't, because that's a common Celtic symbol, and I am _allergic_ ," Prue reminded.

"I dunno, it could mean something," Paige concurred as she came up to look at the cat. "I say we keep it."

Prue rolled her eyes. "What have I gotten myself into?" she muttered. Looking out the front door, she saw a mail truck pulling away. "Oh, can somebody get the mail?" she asked as she and Piper resumed lifting the desk.

"I got it!" Paige shouted, jogging outside. As she retrieved their letters from the box, she looked across the street to see a tall, blonde-haired man standing on the sidewalk. He seemed oblivious to her presence, and was instead staring directly at their house. "Hi..." Paige said cautiously.

The man was shaken out of his thoughts. "Hi," he answered with a smile.

"Are you one of our neighbors?" she asked.

"Oh, no, I'm doing some repairs for a house up the street," the man explained. "But I love to walk around here on my lunch break. This area has such amazing old houses."

"And you're looking at ours?" Paige asked incredulously.

"Well, sure," the man answered. "It could use some fresh paint, some new shutters, and probably a little masonry work on the stairs, but once that's done, you'll have a real beauty on your hands."

"Great. I'll get back to you in the ten or so years it'll take my sisters and me to scrape together the money for all that," Paige joked.

"Oh, it wouldn't cost that much," the man assured.

"Uh, maybe not to your eyes, but trust me, the inside isn't any better," Paige informed.

"Well, if you ever want an opinion on anything, here's my card," the man said, crossing the street to hand it to Paige.

She looked down at it. "Thanks, Mr. Wyatt."

"Please, call me Leo."

"Okay," Paige smiled. "See you around." She turned and walked back inside.

Leo stood on the sidewalk for a long time after the interaction, still staring at the house.

" _Leave the others be._ _You're not here for the Charmed Ones,_ " a voice echoed in his head. " _Only her._ "

"But they don't know how to use their powers yet," Leo protested. "They're vulnerable."

" _That is not a job for you_ ," the voice reminded.

Leo sighed. "Understood," he said. His body began to glow, seemingly encased in white light, before disappearing entirely.

THE END

A/N: Ta-da! So Leo is here too! My idea is that it would be kind of ambiguous at first as to whether he's good or evil, similar to how it was on the show. And in this version, he would be sent specifically to help Paige realize her potential as a whitelighter. My explanation for how the Power of Three works with four sisters is that Paige would have her whitelighter powers only (and hey, orbing, healing and glamoring ain't too shabby), and would actually be her sisters' whitelighter! Perhaps later if Prue still died in this version, her powers would be transferred to Paige, or Paige could have some witch powers manifest themselves later. I do think it's important that she's still able to perform spells and make potions, since she's descended from Melinda Warren as well. So that's why she was able to somewhat "invoke" the Power of Three against Roger. But it would be interesting if she thought she was nothing more than a "dud" in a family of witches, then all of a sudden orbs one day, and realize she has unique powers of her own too. And of course, Leo and Piper would still meet each other and fall madly in love and have lots of babies. :)

I know a lot of people will probably be disappointed that Andy didn't play in here, but hey, Prue's apartment just exploded under mysterious circumstances... Something tells me the cops are gonna have to investigate that... And who better than a detective like Andy?

I don't know if or when I will write any future "episodes" for this version of Charmed... I'm starting grad school in two months so I'm going to be very busy. But if anyone has enjoyed these characters and is inspired, please feel free to write your own stories! All I ask is that you credit the original fic that they're based on. Thank you all again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!


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